A cool glacier fact- The longest ice core ever was about 3km long. it was taken in 2004 in Antartica.
The way that scientists use ice cores from glaciers is to study the climate from many years ago. The scientists can take the ice and put it in a sealed, airtight container and let it melt and then study the different gases in the air. Studies like this have shown that the Earth's atmosphere has been very polluted in the past by natural causes. Scientists have used ice cores to basicly map out the changes in the climate for the last few thousand years. It has let scientists see that in the past there were annual changes in climate, some were larger than others. Every year the climate changes from low carbon dioxide in the summer, to a much higher amount in the winter. Scientists can also look at debries in the ice cores to tell of diffrent events that occured in the area like volcanic eruptions or even diffirent types of insects or other organic creatures. Scientists have even found entire ancient ecosystems in valleys that are know frozen over, which are now visible because of the melting ice. We have learned many different things from glaciers, but there are still many different things that we can still learn. We won't have a chance to discover more about earth's past if all of the glaciers melt away, which they are doing right now. We must do something to stop that from happening.
This graph shows the climate for the last 20 thousand years. Ice cores were used to make this.
This is a core sample from a McCall Glacier in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
How Do We Learn From Glaciers?
A cool glacier fact- The longest ice core ever was about 3km long. it was taken in 2004 in Antartica.
The way that scientists use ice cores from glaciers is to study the climate from many years ago. The scientists can take the ice and put it in a sealed, airtight container and let it melt and then study the different gases in the air. Studies like this have shown that the Earth's atmosphere has been very polluted in the past by natural causes. Scientists have used ice cores to basicly map out the changes in the climate for the last few thousand years. It has let scientists see that in the past there were annual changes in climate, some were larger than others. Every year the climate changes from low carbon dioxide in the summer, to a much higher amount in the winter. Scientists can also look at debries in the ice cores to tell of diffrent events that occured in the area like volcanic eruptions or even diffirent types of insects or other organic creatures. Scientists have even found entire ancient ecosystems in valleys that are know frozen over, which are now visible because of the melting ice. We have learned many different things from glaciers, but there are still many different things that we can still learn. We won't have a chance to discover more about earth's past if all of the glaciers melt away, which they are doing right now. We must do something to stop that from happening.